NEW ERA RRRRIPS OFF SCIFEN
December 8th, 2007 by SCIFENtology
The Paragraph in the file describes this travesty.
(33 votes, average: 4.03 out of 5)
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I see it as a rip. Yet some bozo is going to say” it is different” The concept is the same.
Sometimes I wonder if Magic is worth it with all the fast fashion designers trying to get linesheets and other manufactures looking for ideas. My first year at Magic someone knocked off my booth design. So I had to change mine the following year since I don’t want the same looking booth as someone else.
Why can’t people just do their own thing!
Well said.
Some people have no talent, good job New Error.
That is shameless..New Era is a bunch of bullshit, and they think they are so progressive with silly co-branded limited releases. Yet, they go right ahead and damn near knock off Scifen like no one would notice. What a joke.
What do you expect? SCIFEN rawkz it, does not really suprise that such a large co like New Error decided to SHARK BITE!
Dudes need to try they’re own thing or collabo w/SCIFEN…. but not BITE!
BARMAK/EWOK keep crushin homies!
its all about the……
SCIFEN HOSTILE TAKEOVER!
I wasn’t aware that SCIFEN invented the whole “clouds and stars” thing, I sorta thought it has been a graf staple for decades or something.
Did New Era get the idea to use it on hats from staring across at the SCIFEN booth? Undoubtedly. But that’s not much different than SCIFEN getting the idea to use it on shirts from staring at 80’s graf.
Looking at the SCIFEN website, I see a whole lot of designs that ar influenced by other people’s previous works and themes, but as long as they don’t rip the actual artwork itself, then what are you gonna do? Art influences art.
SCIFEN doth protest too much, methinks.
Your preaching things everyone knows.
It is obvious to be influenced by things, everyone is. But to rip off something so blatant is the reason we are here posting comments.
I’ve been involved with graffiti for almost 20 years of my life, the work I do whether clean or dirty will always be graffiti influenced, it is in my blood and comes out in my work. The STAR, the CLOUD, the BUBBLE, the ARROW even are all “attributes” of GRAFFITI but when done in the EXACT same manner, direction, light fill, dark outline, elongated vanishing 3d it is overtly obvious what’s going on here.
If BMW made a car, and Mercedes seen a prototype and made the same car from the same blue print, NOBODY is gonna stand up and say “All cars have 4 wheels, you didn’t invent that” It’s the manner of what was taken from the work.
If you are trying to accuse me of something yo better know what your talking about first.
And if you can’t see above what everyone else can clearly see, your either working for New Era, or ignorant.
Like I said, New Era clearly got the idea straight from you guys. But since “clouds and stars” isn’t an original idea in the first place, I’m not sure what the complaint is. They didn’t rip your artwork, they just redid the concept they saw you use, a concept that’s been in circulation for decades.
If some company saw something I did with bubble letters & arrows and decided to do similar bubble letters & arrows, what the hell am I gonna say? They got the idea from me, but it’s not my concept in the first place—none of us can claim them except for a few old-ass heads.
There’s a difference between re-doing an original concept and re-doing a concept that is basically part of the public domain by this point.
I’m in no way affiliated with New Era, nor am I ignorant about graf. This is just my opinion.
@Guav
SCIFENtology did clearly understand your point – and he rebutted it well. You can reword your argument again and again but that’s not going to make it correct.
This is a clear rip. No question. l can almost see the screen grab sitting in illustrator as the ‘designer’ toggled away thinking to himself ‘this is sooo fresh, one day l’m going to get a feature on WGSN’
I’m thinking that you most likely work for New Era, or are the type of designer that thinks this sort of thing is OK.
That’s the only way your staunch defense of this makes any sense.
I disagree with about every 5th “rip” that gets posted on this site (many of which end up getting deleted)—does that mean that I work for the accused in all those cases as well? I can’t disagree with someone without being part of a vast corporate conspiracy? Come on.
SCIFENtology, I feel for ya. I posted about Le Sportsac on a prior post and this guy ” Alfonso” had to rebuke everything I posted. He sounds just like Guav. I think that a bunch of law students come to this sight just to debate for debate ’s sake. AND THEY JUST DON”T GET IT. It is so frustrating. Everyone is so glib on this subject. They say stuff like “take it as a compliment” or “just get over it”. When we create our brands look and feel, it is coming from our experiences. Your influenced by graffiti, I may be influenced by little animals with pink noses but it’s not like we are slapping Skulls on stuff just because everyone else is.The small creative companies are trying to build their brand by being fresh and creative. So when someone comes along and starts taking your look and design elements then everything in the market place starts to look the same and it creates unfair competition in the market place. Buyers get frustrated.
The copyright office needs to get high tech and get a computer that scans your artwork and gives you a copyright as artwork is done. A Software that taps into the copyright data base is needed. It will scan your artwork and detect if something similar has a copyright on it already. If it detects a conflict, it will spit out your artwork and say start over. If this was required PROBLEM SOLVED. No courts to tie up. No more cease and desist letters and finally freshness back in the market place.
ewok… don’t waste yr time on this Guava doosh tryin to stir shit up… to me, you are a really intelligent, politically driven dude and have far more brains, experience, knowledge, and insight then most people i know. you are set dude. point in case. new era stole you’re exact concept whether it’s actually 1% verbatim or 110%… this guava juice boy is just tryin to be a tough girl sittin behind his dell computer, yet will see you in person and praise the shit outta you for what you accomplished… scifen x gimme project to death dude. keep it movin e.
-drew
I see both sides to this argument. However, the fact that scifen’s design elements aren’t original to begin with, and the fact that the new era hats uses only some of the same design elements in a different way makes me feel like this isn’t a rip.
Only some can see the bite Ewok & Barmak. Unfortunately some are not as educated nor passionate about the things WE may hold near and dear to our hearts.
The REAL respect REAL and the TRUE see through the crap pile at hand bro!
@ Gauv.
So if you don’t work for New Era then my previous point still stands…
“I’m thinking that you most likely work for New Era, or are the type of designer that thinks this sort of thing is OK.”
See the second half of that sentence after the comma?
…..your not very good at this debating thing are you?
Sure, it’s a rip. But it’s ripping generic.
Everybody thinks they own an art concept nowadays it’s old and it’s some fucking crybaby shit. In my opinion it’s clearly similar but not a rip.
Now, feel free to accuse me of being New Era or ignorant
Deady:
I find it pretty odd that if someone disagrees that something is a “rip” that they must be one of the following:
1. Employee of accused company.
2. Thief.
3. Lawyer.
It’s apparently inconceivable that they could just be a 35 year old dude who wrote from the late 80’s to mid 90’s who simply doesn’t think this is an example of THEFT OF ART. Defending myself against meritless accusations and personal attacks that have nothing to do with the issue anyway isn’t part of the “debate.”
I just consider a “rip” something that the company should have asked permission for or licensed from the artist: things like original concepts and traced or copy/pasted artwork. But this isn’t an example of either an original concept or traced artwork. They took the idea from SCIFEN to use some elements you can find in everyone’s black book.
I do agree with QBArawkness, that the way to go—both in terms of integrity and credibility—would have been for New Era to do a collab with SCIFEN if they liked what they saw.
Drew:
How do you figure I’m trying to be “tough”? I’m not flexing or talking hard, you’re the one making personal attacks, not me. I’m just giving my opinion—that’s what the comment feature is here for: for people to agree or disagree. And for what it’s worth, I’m on a Mac—fuck Windows.
I’ll praise SCIFEN behind their back or to their face—I think the majority of their shit is tight as fuck. Why the hell would you think that my disagreement here means I’m dissing SCIFEN for anything? They haven’t done anything wrong. Don’t turn this into some shit that it isn’t.
I do agree that this is a straight knock off but the style of graffiti used is pretty generic and im sure theres plenty on examples of graf that looks like it before scifen.
You have to admit though…. SCIFEN were the first to balls up to put it out straight LEGIT.
Pressing the design to me is “LEGAL, LEGIT”.
SCIFEN is mad original hype as hell and a great team to rep!
Take it as you wish I suppose. To me its a bite.
SCIFEN also have cultural rights to the style of artwork in a way that a corporation simply can’t ever have. The difference between SCIFEN and New Era is that one is real and one is imitating the real.
Shits knocked off but its easy to knock off easy shit – the scifen logo is cool I guess but theres nothin special about it anyway
Isn’t it weird that people say “it’s knocked off in the first place so fair enough”
1) prove where it’s directly knocked off from & we’ll go from there
2) just because it’s inspired from somewhere else, doesn’t mean you have the rights to knock it off along with the new context it’s given.
3) in this case it’s pretty obviously directly knocked off due to the circumstances and the major similarities
On a side note, the New Era (interesting name) site is shit and a bitch to navigate thru.
anyone with eyes can see that this is blatant rip, anyone who disagrees must not have eyes and is typing bullshit from some braile keyboard or something.
Definite rip off. Someone needs to be either sued or tko’d. This kind of thing is happening way to often these days with no repocussions. Smack some cornball designer up once and a while and I guerantee this stuf stops. Who in their right mind would rip off Scifen? Those guys are real Hip Hop heads. Wow.
I actually wanna see the outcome to all this. Who remembers Wutang slappin up magazine editors for writing stupid stuff. We need to bring that shit back. Make everyone personally accountable for their actions. New Era should throw the designer out of their booth in vegas and say “Yo Scifen, it was this guy not us!” hahahahahahaa.
both of them shits is wac anyhow. scifen and new era… so what! Look ideas are taken everyday from everyone. No one should cry, just be happy your lucky doing your thing!
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
I think that to say ‘well it was already around from the 80’s’ is to say that an artist has no input into their work and they are simply painting by numbers. SCIFEN have used common symbolism to create art/logo of their own. Thats whats being stolen: not the symbols, but their art.
Looking at the comparisons, im sure new era copied their design to the point of copyright infringement.
If youre still following this board SCIFEntology, what are you guys gonna do about it?
Anonymous, you work for New Era shut up. Hahaha, this is an obvious RIP OFF to almighty purportions to the point the clouds look actually live trace from the photo of the booth and copy pasted 3 times on the hat. Nothing worse that this crap, Here’s the scenerio, New Era is only cool for the people they work with, but when New Era attempts to be “cool” by themselves, they rip off the cool guys and look REAL bad. That’s not a good look “Anonymous”
“Maybe it was due in the morning
maybe they told you to do it
maybe you thought we wouldnt notice
but we did…..”
The best line ever , this site is MUCH needed.
“… so what! Look ideas are taken everyday from everyone. No one should cry, just be happy your lucky doing your thing!”
–So wait, someone should spend time designing something and being “creative” coming up with a concept, design, look & feel etc…and if someone does a search online, picks up a magazine, found your design and ripped it off… that’s fine? You should feel “LUCKY”? Wait you’re not allowed to be upset? You should pretty stupid. Or someone that steals ideas from others.
It shouldn’t matter who rips you off, it should all be treated the same. Even if it’s a large company to single owned shop. If you did in fact created something and have the proof to back up your claims you should do anything it takes legally and stand up for your work.
When I read the comments about about this NEW ERA RRRRIPS OFF SCIFEN it’s very clear to me that if in fact SCIFEN came out first, and that New Erz had access to view SCEFEN designs then they should do what ever it takes to put a stop to it.
Something to think about while looking at both of these designs.
Do you feel that the same person designed both?
Do you think SCIFEN had something to do with the NEW ERA hat designs?
If you were to purchase a New Era hat would you feel that you’re purchasing SCEFEN hat?
Would you think New Era ripped them off or Scifen ripped them off?
The bottom line is this…
They have a case. They could in fact have multiple claims on copyright, trademark, reverse confusion, etc. Who knows what will happen but it is a ripp off and New Era regardless if they are larger then Scifen or not does NOT matter.
Good luck Scifen
…I wasnt going to say anything until I read what scifen wrote..seriously i dont care … but stop ragging on people.. this is about new era biting scifen and whether they did or not, scifen feels a little ripped off… but seriously… stars and clouds? i have seen this exact same design almost to the T except there was a silhouette of a unicorn included, that was approximately 5 years ago… ill give you this, it is fishy that their booth is right accross from yours but look closely at their design, it isnt as good, actually quite boring and the clouds dont look half as nice so i bring you this; do you not think, that a huge company like NewEra would improve upon a design?
“Like I said, New Era clearly got the idea straight from you guys. But since “clouds and stars” isn’t an original idea in the first place, I’m not sure what the complaint is. They didn’t rip your artwork, they just redid the concept they saw you use, a concept that’s been in circulation for decades.”
–its not about “clouds and stars” its about the composition and how things are put together. You can have common items that you can not own a copyright/trademark in a design, its the way you compose them in a design that makes it original. Which you can in fact copyright as well as trademark.
This is a fact. not an opinion.
Just like scifentology said about the car wheels. You may have seen cars with wheels for years, but its the way one company builds the car, if someone else built the same car that BMW made, they’d be sue’d up a tree.
It’s the manner they did it in. I can’t believe there are people out there that can look at this and think it’s ok. Crazy
Example:
you’re an illustrator with a certain unique watercolor style. You’re hired by XXX Design Firm to illustrate a plate, fork, knife and spoon. ALL common elements right? ok. So you do the project and a year later you notice some print ads running with a bunch of illustrations that you did NOT do but looked like the same that you produced for XXX Design firm. Same format, layout overall look & feel.
You do some research and find out that XXX Design firm hired another illustrator to take your original designs and do others. All based off of your original designs.
Both illustrations look like the same person did them. All with common items. You could argue that its just watercolor with common items. Right?
Now you have people contacting you and asking “Hey did you design those ad’s from XXX firm? Your response is “NO” Now you’re starting to get more and more calls and now you’re being questioned, maybe even accused of ripping them off.
What do you do? Say fuck it and feel “lucky” that someone took your illustrations and move on? No you do everything it takes to put a stop to it.
BTW–It’s called reverse confusion.
^^^I second that. it looks the same. hope you get em good.
generic east coast bubble letters with clouds and stars?… cmon. make something truly unique and maybey you wont notice “ripoffs”.
Eros, you work with new era too?
hahahahaha. go to bed.
yo the shit even rocks the same way, its obvious
Her name is Ayana Ullah, from Flat Rock, Michigan. DO not sell her your art, do not sell or buy anything from her—-she is a thief!!!!
yeah, uh scifens image isn’t new, and neither is new eras, they are both rip offs, as are the works of the other million “designers” being lazy and using this trendy shit instead of actually coming up with something interesting or original. Maybe, you both ripped it off of a flyer for a show that was posted on some kids myspace.
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve read on this site. And I’ve read some blastfamous responses to some situations on this site. I’d like to see an example cuz that rip off can;t get any more blatant.
scifen sucks goat balls anyways who cares.
Ummmm they both look inspired by eley Kishimoto to me…
You Streetwear homos are all the same, you think you can slap a Scifen logo in a graffiti style thats been around forever and think its original, get over it! its not! There are few original brands left out there, and Scifen is NOT one of them anyway. move on
And all the little kids that think that’s original shit on Scifen’s designs, You guys are TOYS. Fu*kin
groupies.
i agree with susie. If your deisgning something and a company jacks your art or design then everything in the market does start to look the same. And theres no room for creativity cause everybody is mimicing whats out so there company can make money, instead of being creative. Look at companies like ralph lauren, nautica, etc once the urban scene took launch they started lean there designs more in that direction just to keep up with the trends and style.
All i really see is that they rip of them taking stars and clouds in a different way scifen did it, thats all. So it’s an original idea but it’s still not a original concept. Scifen just found a better way to freak stars and clouds and new era jacked that better way.
F streetwear
You Streetwear homos are all the same, you think you can slap a Scifen logo in a graffiti style thats been around forever and think its original, get over it! its not! There are few original brands left out there, and Scifen is NOT one of them anyway. move on”
ARE YOU STUPID OR JUST IN NEED OF A HUG FROM DADDY? IVE SEEN OTHER BRANDS RIP SCIFENS TSHIRTS DESIGNS ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS, FROM D.C. OR WHATEVER THAT SHIT ROB DIERDECK WEARS TO BRANDS I NEVER EVEN HEARD OF. YOU COMMENTING JIBBERISH LIKE THAT JUST MAKES U SOUND BITTER. SCIFEN WAS ONE OF THE FIRST STREET WEAR BRANDS TO EVER HAVE A BOOTH AT MAGIC. AND ALMOST 10 YRS LATER THEYRE STILL AROUND. WHY? BECAUSE THEY DO WHAT THEY WANT AND NOT FOLLOW TRENDS. GO FUCKIN VOTE IF YOU WANT YOUR OPINION HEARD YOU DUMMY. MATTER OF FACT, DONT VOTE, ITS RETARDS LIKE YOU WHO GOT BUSH IN OFFICE.
interesting enough, super touch has posted a response to all this obey plagarism:
http://www.supertouchart.com/2009/02/02/editorial-the-medium-is-the-message-shepard-fairey-and-the-art-of-appropriation/
does anyone know where i can buy that hat
i dont see it.